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In preparing the Consolidated Plan, the City asked for comments at the
Neighborhood Planning Assemblies and for citizen input on three questions:
1. What are the three most important issues in the City right now for
low-income and moderate-income residents?
2. What are the three most important
things the City should spend money on in the next five years to prevent people
from moving into poverty or move them out of poverty or meet their basic needs
while living in poverty?
3. What should the City do in addition to spending
money to address poverty issues?
The highest priority issue most often voiced by residents was housing -
affordability, availability, substandard conditions (especially around energy
efficiency and absentee landlords), high heating costs, not enough
homeownership, loss of family housing to student rentals, property taxes, more rental opportunities for both subsidized and non-subsidized households, and
more housing assistance/retention or transitional housing services (help in how
to get and keep housing).
Childcare, public transportation and livable wage jobs were the next most
frequently voiced issues. Health care and prescription drug costs, more (and
affordable) recreation opportunities, education (quality, funding, fair
treatment of all students, and opportunities for parents to address concerns),
services for residents with long-term medical problems/disabilities, finding
better ways to address the core group of chronically homeless with substance
abuse problems, job training, small business development, and substance abuse were also
cited.
Infrastructure concerns included combined storm water and sewer systems in
some areas of the City (with bad-smelling cache basins and increased lake
pollution), better street lighting and better clean up of debris. Several
residents noted that citizens need community spaces to get together to talk
about problems and find solutions. Other comments noted that tree planting and
street clean-ups are helping to improve neighborhoods, that all community
facilities need to be handicapped accessible, and that pressure-treated
playground equipment needs to be removed from all playgrounds.
Residents in the southern area of the City noted that undeveloped areas needs
to be developed in a mixed-use way and that the industrial/commercial zone in
that area of the City needs to be appropriately balanced against residential
needs (including the need for green space).
The city received a number of comments in the area of citizen participation
and civic engagement. While residents generally felt that the current level of
and means for engagement in the CDBG process is good, they also felt there could
be areas of improvement. Better outreach - about the availability of funds,
about funded programs, about the opportunities to participate - was one such
area, especially in reaching low-income "pockets of poverty" within
the City. One resident suggested increasing the amount of funds set aside for
the Neighborhood Grants program, because that gets people very directly engaged.
(The City is maintaining the current set aside of 5% because there are
substantial needs in other funding areas, i.e., housing, economic development,
social services and community facilities.) A need for more assistance to residents in participating in that program - more
workshops, etc. - was also noted. A need to encourage better vote turnout was
also noted.
Page last updated May 13, 2003
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